Sunburnt HorizonsThe electronic doors of the arrival terminal at Australia’s Perth Airport
opened up as we approached them in what appeared high tec fashion. It was
so different to anything we had left behind in India and Bombay Airport. We
walked out to a warm March Autumn afternoon and a crystal clear blue sky,
there wasn’t a pig, cow, goat, chicken or scabby dog in sight! Not a car
horn could be heard. Not a foul smell sensed and we breathed good clean
pollution free air. No one looked at us as we made our way to the car of
a friend who was picking us up. It was an amazing feeling, for a split second.
Although we had experienced Australia before the feeling of wanting to be back
amongst the chaos, sounds and smells of India started to grow as we started to drive back to our accommodation until the bike arrived in Freemantle Dock. India
is a place you hate at times, as we did, especially when ill and trying to travel and get by in one of the busiest and craziest places on earth. Once you leave, you long to go back to it all. The nauseating stench, the hassle and everything that kept you alert and on your toes was now gone and Australia seemed too civilised and disappointing on our arrival.
The bike arrived at the beginning of April and I fitted the progressive fork springs and heavy fork oil ordered from Germany. I fitted a new set of tyres (Michelin T66) as the other set had been on since the UK and had over 12,000 miles on them. We headed up the West Coast, trying to free camp as much as possible and go to places we had not managed to get to on our last visit to Australia. We toured around on a road bike then but we now had a bike that could go places and go places it did, despite being fully loaded at times. Snorkelling on the Ningaloo reef which we prefer to the Great Barrier Reef as it is so unspoiled and swimming with Whalesharks, the worlds biggest fish, were great experiences. Our first rear puncture of the trip so far was found one morning when we got up while free camping. I managed to re-inflate the tyre enough to get us to Dampier; a small town in North Western Australia where ships are loaded with locally mined Iron Ore
to be exported. Huge amounts of salt were also mined in Dampier and a small
causeway stretched out across the salt lakes leading into town. On the horizon snow like Pyramids with their striking white glare were dotted around the area waiting to be shipped out. A message appeared on our mobile after one week out of range telling us of the death of our friend Harold, who collected us on our arrival in Australia and shared his home with us for one month until the bike arrived. A two-day journey over 1,000 miles took us from Port Hedland to Perth for the funeral to pay our last repects to a good friend. We headed back to Port Hedland over one week to get us back on track, visiting Karajini National Park with it’s deep red gorges and waterholes that were great for swimming.

KIMBERLEY-TRULY OUTBACK

Heading North East we continued to free camp whenever possible. If there is anywhere on earth you can do it; it is here with over 80% of the land mass uninhabited and perfect surroundings for spending a night under the stars. We carried water, food and fuel at all times, always topping up our water supplies at
the last fuel stop for the day before our overnight stay in the bush. Into
the Kimberley region and a place we have always felt gives a true “Outback”
look with desert, rocky outcrops and masses of corrosive green spinfex
grass as far as the eye can see.

Wolfe’s Creek Meteorite Crater was a place we had longed to visit. 100
miles off the main highway on dirt road and around 150 miles from Halls
Creek and the nearest civilisation. We stocked up again on food, fuel and
water to spend the night out at the crater. The road was a mix of flat,
compact dirt, heavy corrugations and soft sand. The soft sand is the worst
condition to cope with on the bike due to the shear weight of being two-up
and carrying a lot of luggage. The corrugations shook hell out of the bike
and us but the advantage of the bike over a four-wheel vehicle is the
ability to pick your way around bad sections of ground. We had five water
crossings of various depths, but once at the Crater it was well worth it.
At 850 metres wide and 50 metres deep, Wolfe’s Creek Crater is the second
largest Meteorite Crater in the world, next to the one in Arizona, USA.
Once up on the crater rim the 360-degree view of the surrounding Tanami
Desert was breath taking and the sense of isolation now hit home with the
thorny spinifex landscape appearing to stretch to infinity. The display of
stars that night was one of the best ever. The Southern Cross, which is the
display of stars on the Australian National Flag, clearly visible above as
we lay in the tent with the door open and tied back so we could view the
diamond speckled sky.

We visited the prison Boab Tree, just south of Derby. This enormous Boab
looks like a huge apple, with some leafed branches sticking out of the top.
It is said to be over 1,000 years old and is hollow in the centre. The tree
had a small split in the side were you could gain entry. Many years ago,
chained prisoners were kept in the tree guarded by armed officers while on
route to court from one town to another. From Derby we went out along the
Gibb River Road to Winjana Gorge, where we walked along the banks of the
lazy slow moving Lennard River which runs through the gorge. The eyes,
snouts and noses of crocodiles could be seen lying in wait for their next
prey giving the look of a half-submerged and drifting log. Echoing through
the 90 metre high gorge walls that line the river it is said that the ghost
of Jandamarra, an aboriginal outlaw tracker can be heard after police shot
him dead when he killed four police officers in 1897. Just before leaving
Western Australia we visited Lake Argyle. This fresh water lake is of
amazimng size and holds enough water to supply 10,000 litres to each person
on earth.

OUTBACK- NORTHERN TERRITORY

We crossed into Northern Territory and lost one and half-hours straight
away. Heading towards Katherine, east of Timber Creek, the Boab trees
started to disappear. Then north to Darwin and a chance to meet up with our
Dutch friends, also overlanding around the world on two XT600’s. Darwin,
although hot, the climate was just right as it was now the dry season with
30degrees by day and 15 during the night. It was our chance to relax and catch
up with friends. Our five-day journey south to Alice Springs was halted 200 miles north of Alice, when our rear tyre wore through to the canvas and burst. Tyres were cheaper in Alice than Darwin and we thought we would make it to Alice before needing to replace it. The thousand miles extra we put on the already worn tyre took its toll. At a cost of five pounds, a road train brought us up a new set of tyres to a roadhouse on the Stuart Highway, were we were camping and the motorcycle shop in Alice Springs let us pay on our arrival in town. The temperatures in Alice were nothing like the Northern Territory’s Top End. Daytime
struggled to get over 20 degrees and nights were minus 4 degrees. Our
journey to Alice was to fulfil another dream of a hot air balloon flight.
At a very cold 5am we helped set the balloon up and just before dawn we
took off to witness the golden glow of day break appear over the distant
eastern horizon of the Simpson Desert. As we floated silently over the
outback we could see numbers of Kangaroos gracefully hopping with great
power and balance from their huge tails through the spinifex scrub below.

Our first mechanical breakdown of the trip so far came 20,000miles after
leaving the UK as we got North of Alice Springs yet again. The bike was
running fine when with no warning the engine faded to a stop and we coasted
to a halt at the side of the Stuart Highway. A few weeks earlier I had read
about carrying enough spare fuel pipe to bypass the fuel pump if it ever
went as they had a problem of it packing in with no warning. Sure enough
the pump had failed and what a stroke of luck to have bought a spare fuel
line only two weeks earlier in Darwin. It was noticeable that what little
traffic passed kept going which is unusual for Australia, as people are
usually quick to stop and check if you need help. After 10 minutes we
realised why no one was stopping, we had broken down on the same area of
the highway that Peter Falconio and his girlfriend had been stopped by
someone at the roadside asking for help and then Peter Falconio went
missing. This was all still fresh in people’s minds, as it was less than 12
months previous. Just as I got the bike started and it fired into life an
old couple in a car with a caravan stopped just long enough to see if we
were OK and then they were gone. We moved further onto Devil’s Marbles for
the night and set up camp. The Devils Marbles are large spherical boulders
clustered together amongst the red sand in no apparent formation but making
a strange and interesting sight. On approach our immediate thought was to
where they came from or what formed them and why in the middle of no-where!
Aboriginal stories tell of them being laid by the Rainbow Serpent. The
following day we limped north into Tennant Creek as with our diminishing
fuel in the tank there wasn’t enough head of pressure to feed the carbs at
the rate the engine needed. I managed to get hold of a fuel pump for a car
and fitted it to get us to the East Coast until I could get a genuine pump.

EAST TO QUEENSLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA.

Travelling down the East we were fast running out of money and I worked as
a Motorcycle courier in Brisbane to fund our move further south. Life as a
courier in a city was difficult to start with only knowing the area as a
tourist originally. It took around four weeks to get familiar with the
city’s lay out. My first day and delivery resulted in a $35 fine for being
illegally parked not a good start! Wages were not good, but it was
something rather than nothing as finding work had not been easy. Down to
Melbourne and on arrival we found we were down to our last 300 pounds in
our pocket! Courier work was easy to get again and I was determined to know
my way around the city faster to help boost the income. It became clear
that my calm, easy going riding style wasn’t going to get me far as a
courier. It didn’t take long and very little effort to become a lunatic on
two wheels like any other courier on the circuit. The faster a delivery
could be made the faster another could be picked up and prioritising
deliveries when holding 5 or more jobs became quite a challenge, but it was
all money. Up and down pavements, as well as along them, carving and
barging a path through traffic, while trying to find the next delivery
address and take job details of the next job pick-up on the radio was all
at a ridiculous speed and for ten to twelve hours a day at times! The bike
coped well being thrashed around town, through traffic, up alleyways,
freeways and didn’t come off too badly after being sent down the road on
its side! Sliding 8 foot as I came to pull up, loaded with deliveries
facing a steep downhill section of town. It wasn’t long before earnings
rose to $1000 a fortnight.

After a few months and Christmas and New Year spent in Victoria we moved
north to the Red Centre of Australia and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
With little work in Alice Springs at that time of year I managed to pick up work at Yulara (Ayer’s Rock Resort) 300 miles south east of Alice. I am now working for
Uluru Motorcyles Tours taking tourists out to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata
Tjuta (The Olgas) on Harley Davidson Heritage Softails. I get to go on
sunrise and sunset tours with passengers from all over the world as well as
other rides getting to see the National Park and surrounding area. All of
this while getting paid for it. Leaving our accommodation of a morning to
go to work the world’s greatest and most famous monolith “Uluru” was a
great view to greet us.

Without money you can’t travel and we always said we would always tell of
our periods of work to be able to fund our continued trip around the world.
When you hear some people’s stories of their travels over long periods of
time they make it sound as if it was on a bottomless pocket of money which
may happen for very few people but most will have to pick up casual work to
fund carrying on. We have stayed a bit longer in Australia to be sure of
finishing our journey with the money we have saved from work. With what we
now know from travelling and the money spent to get to and around Australia
we know we can go further on what we have saved to carry on.

Our life back on the road will start January 2005. We will leave Australia and head
for New Zealand, South East Asia and Singapore Malaysia, Thailand,
Cambodia, and Laos. One thing is for sure, its getting exciting preparing to be back on the road and continue "The Big Trip"!